'Boys Banged Up' Will Be Your New Crime Watch

Crime fanatics, assemble.

A brand-new prison series is coming to BBC Three on 3rd May, and it promises to be a gripping watch.

Boys Banged Up will take a no-holds-barred look at life in prison for young offenders, setting out to meet the young male prisoners who are being detained.

While making the four-part series, broadcaster Stephen Nolan was able to gain exclusive access to Hydebank Wood Prison in South Belfast, Northern Ireland, which houses around 100 young offenders and suspects on remand.

Nolan's mission was to discover what happens after the cell doors shut.

The series will delve into the often-harrowing personal stories of the inmates, exploring how they got there and examining the choices they've made along the way.

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Many inmates' early lives were plagued by abuse and fractured homes.

Most of Hydebank Wood's convicted inmates are aged between 18 to 21 and their offences range from theft through to murder.

In most cases, social deprivation, poverty and mental health issues are the reasons why young men end up in institutions like Hydebank and account for why over half of them reoffend within a year of leaving prison.

As well as investigating the private lives of inmates, Boys Banged Up will look at how Hydebank has changed over the year.

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At one time, the prison had a bad reputation following a series of heavily critical reports, but was later given a complete overhaul.

Hydebank went on to rebrand itself as a 'secure training college' in 2015.

In its new training college format, prisoners are called 'students' and staff are called by their first names.

Now, almost all inmates spend their days in prison engaged in a 'purposeful' activity, training or education.

Nevertheless, when classes end, these students go back to sleep in their cells.

In this unflinching series, viewers will follow Stephen Nolan as he gets an insight into life behind bars, from walking the corridors and entering cells to talking with inmates and sharing their day-to-day routines.

Nolan engages with inmates, challenging them about responsibility for their crimes, and what compelled them to commit them.

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Boys Banged Up lands on BBC Three Sunday 3rd May.

Topics: True Crime, BBC, TV News, TV Entertainment

Mary-Jane Wiltsher

Mary-Jane Wiltsher is a freelance lifestyle and culture journalist. Elsewhere she writes for Stylist, Euronews, PHOENIX and What We Seee.